GAME REPORT

Turkey Take First Place From Montenegro

Turkey bounced back from their shock defeat to Ukraine in style and stormed past Montenegro on Saturday to win Group B at the Sportland U20 European Championship in Tallinn.

The previously undefeated Montenegrins arrived at the Saturday clash enjoying the view from the top of the group as the most productive team in the tournament, with an average offensive output of 84.3 points per game.

But Turkey had done their homework and their excellent defensive effort forced Montenegro to commit 15 turnovers and hit only 37 percent of their shots from the floor (1-for-11 from long range) during the first half of the encounter.

Turkey meanwhile were pluralistic on the offensive end, with all their players not only contributing but also hitting 15 of their 24 shots from two-point range (62.5%), to grab a 49-26 advantage at the interval.

With the task almost accomplished after twenty minutes, Turkey were a bit more permissive on defence in the second half and Montenegro reduced the gap somewhat, although they never managed to push it back to single-digit levels and pose a real threat.

Turkey shooting guard Tayfun Erülkü finished with a team-high 21 points on 100% shooting, Berkay Candan picked up a double-double of 11 points, 11 rebounds and added four assists and Ramazan Tekin chipped in with 13 points and six boards.

For Montenegro, Vukota Pavic finished with 25 points and six rebounds and Marko Mugosa had 15 points and seven boards in losing efforts.